Texas State Bounces Back in a Magnificent Victory

By Mark Brown
Assistant Sports Director

The Bobcats experienced a swift turnaround as they decimated conference foe Arkansas State 85-62 in a battle for hunger. What I mean by hunger is the fact Texas State utilized their recent loss against the Little Rock Trojans as motivation to win more games. The Bobcats appeared to present themselves beyond determined as they took down the Red Wolves by a whopping 23 point lead. This 85-point result marked as the highest single-game performance output for Texas State in conference play since they defeated Appalachian State 92-50 on Feb. 3, 2018. This also became the most points ever scored against an NCAA Division I team all season thus far.

Texas State head coach Zenarae Antoine was very pleased with this afternoon’s performance. The Cats soared away with the score very early in the ballgame. They led 13-0 with most of the woodwork coming from senior guard Toshua Leavitt tallying seven of those points. The Red Wolves cast off two timeouts alone in the first quarter in an attempt to slow down the Bobcats’ outraging performance. Within the first ten minutes of play, the Bobcats were up 23-7 which deemed the third time this season in which the Cats scored 20 points or more in the opening act.

Leavitt was an important role throughout the ballgame as she assisted the team in leading the Red Wolves 41-21 at the half. She collected 19 points alone in the first half.

Leavitt continued her hot streak of play at the start of the third quarter alongside the sophomore protégé Jayla Johnson. The two standouts combined for 22 points within the third quarter alone. Leavitt netted four out of five three-point attempts while Johnson executed five out of six shots inside the arc. The Bobcats led 69-36 at the start of the fourth.

The Red Wolves tried to salvage themselves by scoring 26 points in the fourth quarter. Even with that, the Bobcats continued to remain unstoppable as the game was never closer than a 19-point margin by this point.

Leavitt amassed 31 points, shooting 12 for 21 from the floor and 7-of-13 from 3-point land. She also had a career-high of five steals. This game marked the fourth 30-point accolade of her career and second this season. Her seven made threes gave her 26 career games with at least five made 3-point field goals, five coming from her senior season so far. The Bobcats also had double-digit points coming from Johnson and freshman forward Da’Nasia Hood. Hood collected a career-high of 16 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the floor along with four rebounds. Johnson assembled 14 points and seven rebounds.

Next up, the Bobcats will face the Georgia State Panthers this Thursday at 7 p.m. in Strahan Arena. Check out all the action on KTSW 89.9.

Featured Image Courtesy of Texas State Athletics.